Sons’ forgiveness may see Khashoggi’s killers spared death penalty

The family of slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi have forgiven his Saudi killers, giving legal reprieve to the five government agents sentenced to death for an operation that cast a cloud of suspicion over the kingdom’s crown prince.

“We, the sons of the martyr Jamal Khashoggi, announce that we forgive those who killed our father as we seek reward from God Almighty,” wrote one of his sons, Salah Khashoggi, on Twitter.

Salah Khashoggi, who lives in Saudi Arabia and has received financial compensation from the royal court for his father’s killing, explained that forgiveness was extended to the killers during the last nights of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in line with Islamic tradition to offer pardons in cases allowed by Islamic law.

Prior to his killing, Khashoggi had written critically of Saudi

Arabia’s crown prince in columns for the Washington Post. He’d been living in exile in the United States for about a year as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman oversaw a crackdown on human rights activists, writers and critics of his devastating war in Yemen.

In October 2017, a team of 15 Saudi agents was dispatched to Turkey to meet Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul for what he thought was an appointment to pick up documents needed to wed his Turkish fiance.

Turkish officials allege Khashoggi was killed and then dismembered with a bone saw. The body has not been found. Turkey apparently had the Saudi Consulate bugged and has shared audio of the killing with the CIA.

The grisly killing, which took place as his Turkish fiance waited for him outside the building, drew international condemnation of Prince Mohammed.

The 34-year-old prince, who has the support of his father

King Salman, denies any involvement. US intelligence agencies, however, say an operation like this could not have happened without his knowledge.

After initially offering shifting accounts of what transpired, Saudi prosecutors eventually settled on the explanation that Khashoggi had been killed by Saudi agents in an operation masterminded by two of the crown prince’s top aides at the time. Neither was found guilty in trial, however.

In addition to the five sentenced to execution, the Saudi trial concluded last year that three other people were guilty of covering up the crime and were sentenced to a combined 24 years in prison..

Saudi media outlet Arab News sought to clarify that the announcement by Khashoggi’s sons may spare the convicted killers execution, but does not mean they will go unpunished.